Football News And Views

A terrible decision today meant Chelsea beat Newcastle 2-1. Kalou was a good 4 yards offside when he scored Chelseas winner yet the linesman gave the goal and the referee did not argue with his decision. What makes this even more of a joke is that 3 Newcastle players were booked for protesting when they were right! I really hope those yellow cards will be rescinded. It was yet another inept display by officials in the Premiership which again will bring up the call for some sort of goal line technology, replays etc. I cannot see why we don’t have replays in football. They are a huge success in Rugby (unless Aussies are involved in watching them) and some may argue that it’s not good to stop play but this situation doesn’t really come up more than once a game. A lot less than a dodgy try.

Another solution though is to punish those involved. We have seen refs dropped before because of their mistakes and I hope this will happen to those involved in todays game. I don’t know if they lose wages for being dropped from a game but they deserve it because they have not done their job. Disgraceful.

The quarter finals of the Carling Cup are now over and Everton, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham are all through. Everton defeated West Ham last week 2-1 thanks to goals from Leon Osman and Yakubu after West Ham had earlier took the lead through Cole. Tottenham became the first team this year to win at the city of Manchester stadium when they beat Manchester City 2-0 with goals from Defoe and Malbranque. Tottenham played 70 minutes of the match after Zokora was sent off for a rash tackle on Elano. Despire having 10 men Tottenham outplayed Man City and deserved their victory. Arsenal had a tricky tie away to Blackburn. In typical Arsenal fashion, Wenger played a young side in this competition and once again they were victorious, this time against a very strong Blackburn side. Arsenal found themselves 2-0 early on after goals from Diaby and Eduardo but Roque Santa Cruz pegged one back for Blackburn before the break and the goal hungry striekr scored a second to level the tie. Denilson was sent off for Arsenal late on and Arsenal had to play extra time with 10 men. However it was Arsenal who took the advantage when Song burst from defense to pick out Eduardo with that killer ball and the Croatian made no mistake with his cool finish.

The tie of the round saw Chelsea entertain Liverpool. The first half was very tight with neither side managing a break through. Frank Lampard broke the deadlock on 59 minutes when his shot deflected off Carragher and into the back of the net. How many more deflected goals will Chelsea score against Liverpool? Moments after the goal things went from bad to worse for Liverpool when peter Crouch was sent off for a reckless challenge on Mikel. The final half hour was easy for Chelsea who late on found their second when Shevchenko scored from a tight angle.

Arsenal will now face local rivals Spurs in the semis, whilst Chelsea face Everton. Personally I was hoping for Liverpool to go through so we could have had two local derbys in the semis. Instead Chelsea and Arsenal could be set for a rematch in the final.

Joey Barton spoke out over the weekend how Newcastle players are scared of their own fans. Big, fat bald Geordies is enough to scare anyone I think especially when you can’t get a result at the moment. Joey isn’t scared of getting banged up though. He could face a prison term if he is found guilty of assaulting former team mate Osmane Dabo. In these modern times, footballers are basically celebrities so we all know he wont be found guilty and even if he was his sentance would be cut short by about 90%. Let’s just hope if he is found guilty he isn’t sharing a cell with a Newcastle fan as he may find prison very scary if he does.